Hope is like a light, and it is itself the switch.<\/p>\n
For anyone who reads my blog the words above may sound familiar, probably because they are. I said something similar in my post \u201con Belief<\/a>\u201d, where I said \u201cI believe love is like a light, with somebody else at the switch.\u201d<\/p>\n Love is a strange, wonderful, mysterious force over which we have virtually no control.\u00a0 We can\u2019t compel someone to love us, neither can we stop ourselves from loving someone \u2013 thus \u201csomeone else is at the switch.\u201d<\/p>\n On a superficial level it seems hope and love are similar. But though the words I’ve used to describe them are, the sentiments behind them are not.\u00a0 Language is simple, emotions and thoughts aren\u2019t.\u00a0 Please bear with me as I struggle to convey differences that are nuanced more than obvious.<\/p>\n Hope begins within and is sustained from without.\u00a0 Love floods us from without then grows within. Love is powerful and compelling. Hope is tenuous and timid.\u00a0 Love is infinite, hope is finite.<\/p>\n So from the words above it would seem that between love and hope, I believe love is the greater force?<\/p>\n I don\u2019t think so. \u00a0Language does not permit ready comparison of the two topics, but I\u2019m inclined to think hope may be the most powerful force in our universe.\u00a0 Hope helps us accomplish incredible things.\u00a0 With a little hope we are able to not only undertake impossible tasks, but succeed in completing them.\u00a0 With hope in our hearts we\u2019ll walk a path of broken glass, barefoot, both ways. \u00a0However that isn\u2019t the reason I think hope may be more powerful than love.\u00a0 The reason is because of what happens in hope\u2019s absence.<\/p>\n Without hope there is no point, no purpose, no reason, and no goal.\u00a0 Without hope there is no beginning, but there is an end.\u00a0 When we don\u2019t have hope, we just don\u2019t.\u00a0 What do I mean by that?\u00a0 As I said, while language is simple the concepts it is used to convey are complex.\u00a0 I don’t mean that without hope we just don’t have hope, that would be redundant.\u00a0 I mean that when we don’t have hope we no longer have the energy or desire to even begin the most trivial of tasks.\u00a0 But when we have hope we\u2019ll do and withstand the impossible.\u00a0 Consider that contrast.\u00a0 With hope in our heart we accomplish. Without hope we don’t even begin.<\/p>\n Where love is the reward, hope is the motivator.<\/p>\n But hope isn\u2019t just about love, hope is about life and how well we live it.<\/p>\n As a parent one of the most terrible realizations I\u2019ve ever made is that my children will not live as good a life as I’ve had. They’re entering the workforce already in debt. They’re living in a world in which social injustice is rampant.\u00a0 They’re entering a world of unconscionable disparity in income. They’re entering a world in which people have accepted that possessions are more important than people.\u00a0 They are entering a world in which hope has been mistaken to mean \u201chave\u201d.<\/p>\n I hope my children will be caring, compassionate, and loving \u2013 not bigoted, grasping, and afraid.\u00a0 I hope they can accomplish such a tall order in such a hopelessly terrible world. You be the judge as you read the following.\u00a0 My oldest daughter, Tamryn, just graduated summa cum laude with a Bachelor’s Degree in Social Work.\u00a0 She was the only person in her graduating class with a perfect 4.0 GPA.\u00a0 She is working with Children’s Services, where she makes a difference in the lives of low income families and their children in south eastern Ohio. People like her renew my faith in the goodness of humanity.\u00a0 I feel my pride in her accomplishments and evolving nature is justified. So what is the problem? The problem is that Tamryn epitomizes pretty much everything wrong in the world we live in.\u00a0 She is heavily encumbered by student debt.\u00a0 She is dealing with the victims of a failed and horrifically unjust social system.\u00a0 Income disparity affects not only those she works with, who are poverty stricken, but it affects her directly since her pay is dollars an hour less than the completely unqualified clerk in Human Resources who completed her employment paperwork.\u00a0 Tamryn will be continuing her education with a Master’s and then, I hope, a PHD.\u00a0 However she already knows she’ll literally never be able to pay back the debts her education will incur if she remains in social work.\u00a0 Before you suggest she change her job into something more lucrative please reconsider these two sentences, “They’re entering a world in which people have accepted that possessions are more important than people.<\/em>“, and “They are entering a world in which hope has been mistaken to mean \u201chave\u201d<\/em>.” Let me summarize, perhaps it’ll help me understand why I’m finding my hope in humanity wearing so thin. Tamryn is working to give hope to children largely without hope, while being being financially penalized for exposing the goodness of her heart.\u00a0 How hopeless is that?\u00a0 Is our only hope to flee into imaginary worlds<\/a> where the status-quo of this broken one is not?<\/span><\/p>\n Which brings me back to the opening line of this post, \u201cHope is like a light, and it is itself the switch<\/em>.\u201d\u00a0 Hope is not infinite. Hope may be able to spread itself thin, it may be able to keep its flame burning\u00a0 in the face of a gale force wind. But hope is finite. And at some point hope simply runs out and turns itself off. I know.\u00a0 I’ve been there and done that, and suspect I will again.<\/p>\n To me, hope has been important enough to prompt me to speak of it many times. A few examples from Twitter appear below.<\/p>\n Hope has no place in a world where indifferent silence rules.<\/p>\n — C.G.Ayling (@CGAyling) September 26, 2013<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n
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